Bard envisions the liberal arts institution as the hub of a network, rather than a single, self-contained campus. Numerous institutes for special study are available on and off campus, connecting Bard students to the greater community.

The Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College embodies the fundamental belief that education and civil society are inextricably linked. In an age of information overload, it is more important than ever that citizens be educated and trained to think critically and be actively engaged with issues affecting public life.

Ongoing Events2>

Free Press Presents: A guest lecture by Betsy Reed, editor-in-chief of The Intercept

Friday, February 2, 2018 – Saturday, February 3, 20185–6:30 pm

Olin, Room 102Betsy Reed is the current editor-in-chief of The Intercept, a journalism publication that delivers fearless adversarial journalism that holds the powerful accountable. Previously, she was an editor at The Nation, and she has edited numerous books including Blackwater and Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill.

She will be discussing her work and the importance of journalism today. There will also be an extended Q and A.For more information, call 860-885-4394, or e-mail hh5684@bard.edu.

Free Press Presents: A guest lecture by Betsy Reed, editor-in-chief of The Intercept

Friday, February 2, 2018 – Saturday, February 3, 20185–6:30 pm

Olin, Room 102Betsy Reed is the current editor-in-chief of The Intercept, a journalism publication that delivers fearless adversarial journalism that holds the powerful accountable. Previously, she was an editor at The Nation, and she has edited numerous books including Blackwater and Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill.

She will be discussing her work and the importance of journalism today. There will also be an extended Q and A.For more information, call 860-885-4394, or e-mail hh5684@bard.edu.

Opera WorkshopMystery and Magnetism

Saturday, February 3, 20187:30 pm

Fisher Center, LUMA TheaterA fully staged evening of operatic scenes from the 17th to the 20th centuries, featuring soloists and chorus from the Bard College Opera Workshop.Sponsored by: Bard Music Program Presents.

Opera WorkshopMystery and Magnetism

Sunday, February 4, 20183 pm

Fisher Center, LUMA TheaterA fully staged evening of operatic scenes from the 17th to the 20th centuries, featuring soloists and chorus from the Bard College Opera Workshop.Sponsored by: Bard Music Program Presents.

Christian Services

Sunday, February 4, 20183–5 pm

Chapel of the Holy InnocentsYou are invited to be part of our service of prayer and Holy Communion as we gather for intellectual discussions about theology, the Bible, and current events. Snacks and fellowship occur after the service. We welcome all—Christians, non-Christians, spiritual but not religious, agnostics, believers, doubters, seekers, those who have questions about faith and religion, those struggling to understand where God is in our challenging world, and anyone wanting to use their faith to change and act in the world!Sponsored by: Chaplaincy.

Composer and Pianist Dai Bo from the Central Conservatory, Beijing

A Conversation and Recital

Monday, February 5, 20183:30 pm

László Z. Bitó '60 Conservatory Building

Dai Bo, currently a graduate student at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, has been blind since the age of seven. He has had considerable success as a musician, and was a featured composer at Juilliard's recent Focus! Festival "China Today." He will speak about his music, and play and discuss recordings of his works. Free. Room 210.Sponsored by: Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Meditation Group

To study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, and to forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.

Monday, February 5, 20185–6:30 pm

Center for Spiritual Life, Basement of Resnick Commons Dorm ANewcomers receive an introduction to meditation. Everybody is welcome! Followed by free vegetarian dinner (send me an email if you plan to attend the meal!)Sponsored by: Chaplaincy.

Men's and Women's Basketball Doubleheader

Friday, February 9, 20186 pm

Stevenson Athletic Center, Main GymThe men's and women's basketball teams host Liberty League rival RPI. The women's game is at 6; the men's game follows at 8. Come out and cheer!Sponsored by: Department of Athletics and Recreation.

Music & Words

Classical, Jazz & Soul: A Musical Offering Led by Damien Sneed

Friday, February 9, 20187:30 pm

Fisher Center, LUMA Theater

“An ambassador for classical and gospel music… His talent stretches across traditional divisions. In the realest sense, he uses his artistry to make our world a better place.” —Wynton Marsalis on Damien Sneed

Music & Words is the first performance of Catskill Jazz Factory’s three-concert winter series, Classical, Jazz, and Soul: A Musical Offering. Tracing the American vocal tradition from 1860 to today, the series is led by prodigious multi-genre pianist, conductor, composer, producer, arranger, and educator Damien Sneed.

Music & Words takes audiences on a journey from the spirituals, art songs and poems of Harry T. Burleigh and Laurence Hope, to the melodic chords of Samuel Barber, and the well-known hit songs of George & Ira Gershwin. Leading this musical reflection on the relationship between composer and librettist, Sneed will be joined by Metropolitan Opera soprano Brandie Sutton, actor/writer Karen Chilton, baritone Justin Michael Austin, Cellist Sterling Elliott, and Edward Hardy on violin for this debut exploration of the music of 1860 to the 1930s for strings, piano and voice.

The Classical, Jazz and Soul series is commissioned by Catskill Jazz Factory.

Men's and Women's Basketball Doubleheader

Saturday, February 10, 20182 pm

Stevenson Athletic Center, Main GymThe men's and women's basketball teams host Hobart and William Smith in Liberty League games - the final home game for the men's team. The women's game vs. William Smith is at 2; the men's game vs. Hobart follows at 4. Come out and cheer!Sponsored by: Department of Athletics and Recreation.

Christian Services

Sunday, February 11, 20183–5 pm

Chapel of the Holy InnocentsYou are invited to be part of our service of prayer and Holy Communion as we gather for intellectual discussions about theology, the Bible, and current events. Snacks and fellowship occur after the service. We welcome all—Christians, non-Christians, spiritual but not religious, agnostics, believers, doubters, seekers, those who have questions about faith and religion, those struggling to understand where God is in our challenging world, and anyone wanting to use their faith to change and act in the world!Sponsored by: Chaplaincy.

Works by John Harbison and James Primosch

Sunday, February 11, 201812:30 pm

James PrimoschPure Contraption, Absolute Gift (solo piano)Descent/Return (voice and piano; a new version of two songs originally for chamber ensemble)The Old Astronomer (voice and piano)Who Do You Say That I Am? (voice and piano)The Pitcher (voice and piano)

Women's Basketball Senior Night

Monday, February 12, 20187 pm

Stevenson Athletic Center, Main GymIt's Senior Night for the women's basketball team - last home game of the season as Bard hosts Purchase. Come out and cheer!Sponsored by: Department of Athletics and Recreation.

The Strange Stories of Yiddishland: What the Yiddish Press Reveals about the Jews

Dr. Eddy Portnoy in conversation with Prof. Luc Sante

Tuesday, February 13, 20184:45 pm

Olin, Room 102

An underground history of downwardly mobile Jews, Eddy Portnoy's new book Bad Rabbi and Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press mines century-old Yiddish newspapers to expose the seamy underbelly of pre-WWII New York and Warsaw, the two major centers of Yiddish culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One part Isaac Bashevis Singer, one part Jerry Springer, this irreverent, unvarnished, and frequently hilarious compendium of stories provides a window into an unknown Yiddish world that was.

Eddy Portnoy received his Ph.D. from the Jewish Theological Seminary. A specialist in Jewish popular culture, he has taught at Rutgers University and currently serves as academic adviser for the Max Weinreich Center and exhibition curator at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

They Mistook a Backlash for a Movement: Black Men and the Doom of Western Civilization

A Tough Talk with Tommy Curry, and Discussion Moderated by Dana Miranda

Tuesday, February 13, 20186–7:30 pm

Kline, Faculty Dining RoomThe emancipation of Black Americans from slavery reorganized the ethnological thinking of the 19th century. Black men became the largest threat to the order of American civilization almost overnight. Whereas many political theorists, philosophers, and educators suggest that the “end” of slavery was one moment in the natural expansion of democracy toward freedom, history tells a different story. The emancipation of the Negro birthed the rapist. When he was allowed access to the ballot, suffragettes condemned this symbolic gesture as evidence of a Black manhood and forewarned that free Black men would not only destroy civilization but womanhood itself. Contrary to our intersectional theories concerning race and gender, this presentation argues that feminism was an evolution of patriarchy—its attempt to racially perfect itself—dedicated to the subjugation of Black men within America’s borders (their permanent exclusion from America’s public and ultimately its social life), and the colonization of darker men the world over. I will argue that these old ideas not only dictate our views and interpretations of Black men and boys but also the xenophobia we have of racialized (Black, Brown, Muslim, etc.) males even today.

National Climate Seminar: The Declining Health of Science-Based Policy: Causes and Remedies

Todd Wolf, Union of Concerned Scientists

Wednesday, February 14, 201812–1 pm

https://bluejeans.com/465542196

Join Bard CEP on February 14th for a conversation on science-based policy as it relates to climate change with Todd Wolf, Senior Washington Representative at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Todd Wolf is senior Washington representative for the Climate & Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, where he advocates for preparing for the impacts of climate change, as well as a transition to a clean energy economy. He has ten years of experience in the House of Representatives, having served as deputy chief of staff for Representative Cheri Bustos (D-IL), and as senior legislative assistant to Representative Bruce Braley (D-IA), working on climate and energy policy. Todd has a B.A. in business administration and Spanish language from the University of Northern Iowa.

BARD CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

The Bard Graduate Programs in Sustainability offer masters programs in Environmental Policy, Climate Science and Policy, and Sustainable Business. The Bard Center for Environmental Policy's career-focused, science based, interdisciplinary masters of science programs are located in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley. The rigorous first year coursework, followed by a required 4-6 month immersive internship, culminates with a Master’s Capstone Project and a 93% job placement rate within 6 months of graduation. Graduates are currently pursuing careers in many fields such as: alternative energy, international Development, advocacy/lobbying, conservation, research, and strategic consulting. For more information: bard.edu/cep/

Thomas Buckner, electronic music guest artist and vocalist

Wednesday, February 14, 20181:30–3:50 pm

Blum N119Beginning with a youthful encounter with the music of Charles Ives, Thomas Buckner will go on to discuss his long-term collaborations with pioneers in electronic, computer, and improvised music over the past 50 years, including David Wessel, Roscoe Mitchell, Robert Ashley, Annea Lockwood, Alvin Lucier, Earl Howard, Tom Hamilton, Pauline Oliveros, and Phill Niblock, as time permits. Sponsored by: Music Program.

The Influence of the Host Microenvironment on Breast Cancer Progression:Investigations Using a Computational Biology Approach

Kerri-Ann Norton, Computer Science Program

Thursday, February 15, 201812 pm

Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 AuditoriumCancer is influenced not only by its intrinsic properties, epigenetic, or genetic changes in its cellular properties but also by the host microenvironment. Without nutrients supplied by the host blood vessels tumors can become hypoxic and die. Other stromal cells, such as macrophages and fibroblasts, can support or antagonize tumor growth by secreting different factors that affect growth, migration, and adhesion. I examine the interplay between breast cancer cells and the surrounding host cells, including blood vessels, macrophages, and fibroblasts, using a computational modeling approach. This approach allows one to examine the individual as well as combined effects of stromal cells in a 3-D simulated environment, and to make predictions as to which targets would be the most successful for cancer therapies.Sponsored by: Biology Program.

Sticky Fingers: Joe Hagan in Conversation with Stephen Metcalf

Thursday, February 15, 20185–7 pm

Campus Center, Weis CinemaAuthor Joe Hagan will discuss his book Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone with Stephen Metcalf (Slate culture critic-at-large and host of the Slate Culture Gabfest).

The Witness's Two Bodies: Primo Levi, Anne Frank, Jorge Semprún

a lecture byProf. Anna Maria Mariani (University of Chicago)

respondentProf. Francine Prose (Bard College)

Thursday, February 15, 20185 pm

Olin, Room 102This talk asks what became of Primo Levi’s testimonial function after his death. The first part investigates the literary objects (novels and comic books) produced in the wake of Levi’s death, when fictionalized representations of him multiplied through different media. As a means of comparison, the question will be explored by taking into account a series of fictional works that feature another quintessential emblem of the Shoah: Anne Frank. The second part will instead examine Literature or Life by Buchenwald survivor Jorge Semprún, who rewrote and rearticulated Levi’s words on the very day of the latter’s suicide. Can testimonial function migrate between mortal bodies, like the royal dignitas, thus preserving itself beyond the ephemeral lives of individuals? Sponsored by: Hannah Arendt Center; Italian Studies Program; Jewish Studies Program; Literature Program.

Climate Change: Can Business Get it Done?

Business Stepping Up: The Lovins Series

Thursday, February 15, 20186:30–8:30 pm

As President Trump pursues a regressive, isolationist agenda, business is stepping up to address climate change, promote equality and protect human rights, and create economic opportunity. Join sustainability pioneer Hunter Lovins for a conversation series with industry experts to explore this shift in progressive business leadership.

February's Business Stepping Up conversation will feature Eban Goodstein, Director of the Graduate Programs in Sustainability at Bard College. He will be discussing the role of business in efforts to address climate change. Companies have long understood the impacts that global climate change will have on their operations -- can the business community drive climate action given the current political landscape?

Eban Goodstein is the author of three books: Economics and the Environment, (John Wiley and Sons: 2017) now in its eighth edition; Fighting for Love in the Century of Extinction: How Passion and Politics Can Stop Global Warming (University Press of New England: 2007); and The Trade-off Myth: Fact and Fiction about Jobs and the Environment. (Island Press: 1999). Articles by Goodstein have appeared in among other outlets, The Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Land Economics, Ecological Economics, and Environmental Management. His research has been featured in The New York Times, Scientific American, The Economist, and USA Today. In recent years, Goodstein has coordinated climate education events at over 2500 colleges, universities, high schools and other institutions across the country He serves on the editorial board of Sustainability: The Journal of Record, and is on the Steering Committee of Economics for Equity & the Environment. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Follett Corporation, and is on the advisory committee for Chevrolet's Clean Energy Initiative.

Join Bard MBA in Sustainability as we host the Business Stepping Up Series monthly in downtown Manhattan featuring Hunter Lovins in discussion with Bard MBA faculty and alumni who are part of this business revolution.

Follow along with Business Stepping Up in the monthly Huffington Post column previewing that month's event:

Les Levine: Mott Art Hearings

Thursday, February 15, 20187–9 pm

Avery Art Center, Center for Film, Electronic Arts and MusicA presentation by Les Levine, co-sponsored by Experimental Humanities, Film and Electronic Arts, and Studio Arts in conjunction with the exhibition of Levine’s historic video work on view in Film and Electronic Arts gallery, room 219. The Mott Art Hearings were first performed in 1971 and have been performed numerous times since. Les Levine has had over 100 solo exhibitions of his work in many countries, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, the National Gallery of Victoria, Centre Pompidou, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Albright Knox Gallery. Widely considered one of the most important pioneers of video art and conceptual art, his expansive work continues to break new ground in a dramatically and rapidly changing media landscape.Sponsored by: Experimental Humanities Program; Film and Electronic Arts Program; Studio Arts Program.

Finding Mathematics in Hridaya Kolams

Sunita Vatuk, City College of New York

Friday, February 16, 20181:30 pm

Hegeman 204

There is a lot of talk about math being &lquo;everywhere&rquo; in &lquo;daily life,&rquo; and I would argue that most (all?) mathematicians understand how to find it. But the process of finding math in unexpected places is something that most of us learned by osmosis rather than consciously.

Many South Indian Hindus have at least one god in their home—a statue that they worship every day. The daily &lquo;puja&rquo; often involves making a design out of rice powder in front of the god. We will look at two variations of this design, called a Hridaya kolam. (Hridaya = heart, kolam = designs made from powder in South India.)

After learning to make the two standard designs, we will embark on an exploration to find some mathematics in them—making algorithms, generalizing, looking for structure, explaining what we find, coming up with useful notation, deciding on definitions, and so on. Different students will be free to follow different paths through the exploration.

Sunita Vatuk has a Ph.D. in differential geometry from Princeton University. As part of her teaching at the University of Colorado (Boulder), Rutgers University (Piscataway), and City University of New York she has worked extensively with high school math teachers. That work sparked an interest in the existence and nature of mathematical thinking outside of research mathematics, including but not limited to origami and textile production. This talk is based on over 80 interviews with kolam experts and hundreds of designs she learned as a Fulbright scholar affiliated with the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.Sponsored by: Mathematics Program.

Christian Services

Sunday, February 18, 20183–5 pm

Chapel of the Holy InnocentsYou are invited to be part of our service of prayer and Holy Communion as we gather for intellectual discussions about theology, the Bible, and current events. Snacks and fellowship occur after the service. We welcome all—Christians, non-Christians, spiritual but not religious, agnostics, believers, doubters, seekers, those who have questions about faith and religion, those struggling to understand where God is in our challenging world, and anyone wanting to use their faith to change and act in the world!Sponsored by: Chaplaincy.

Land Remarks: Emma Ressel

Monday, February 19, 20185–6 pm

New Annandale House (Container Building)Emma Ressel’s work grows from the desire to turn the natural world away from the realities that hinder and limit it.

Imagine a time lapse of the planet if humans were to disappear from Earth, the satisfaction of plants taking back the cities.

In the new work created for Land Remarks, Ressel fictionalizes the landscape of the Sawkill River as if it had never been touched by human hands. Using the process of double exposure, Ressel obscures and reveals certain man-made elements, reshaping the ground into her own idealized terrain. The photographs are fakes, entirely useless documentation, an indulgence in the wish to reverse the inescapable and rapid change.

As she continues to pursue the process of working with the land around Bard’s campus, Ressel would like to open the lecture to feedback, ideas, and questions from the audience. Sponsored by: Experimental Humanities Program.

Taking the Kingdom by Force: A History of Violence in Christian Video Games

Dr. Vincent Gonzalez

Monday, February 19, 20185:30–6:30 pm

Olin, Room 204Since the early 1980s Christians have created their own video games and game review sites, as well as distinctly Christian ways to play secular games. Like other gamer cultures, these Christians are creatively engaged in an ongoing conversation on the meaning and stakes of video game “violence.” This presentation will offer a history of Christian interventions in the game violence debates, complete with playable encounters with some representative Christian games.

Vincent Gonzalez received his doctorate in religious studies from UNC - Chapel Hill. His research on religion and digital culture can be found at www.religiousgames.org as well as @religiousgames on Twitter.Sponsored by: Religion Program.

A Reading by Bard Fiction Prize Winner Carmen Maria Machado

Monday, February 19, 20187 pm

Carmen Maria Machado, Bard Fiction Prize recipient and writer in residence at Bard College, will read from recent work. The reading is free and open to the public.

Carmen Maria Machado received the Bard Fiction Prize for her debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties (Graywolf Press, 2017). In the collection, long-listed for the 2017 National Book Award and a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, Machado shapes startling, mind-bending narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. She is a fiction writer, critic, and essayist whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, Guernica, Electric Literature, NPR Books, and elsewhere. Her memoir, House in Indiana, is forthcoming in 2019 from Graywolf Press.

Machado holds an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residences from the Michener-Copernicus Foundation, CINTAS Foundation, University of Iowa, Yaddo Corporation, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts, among others. She is an artist in residence at the University of Pennsylvania, and lives in Philadelphia with her wife. For more information, call 845-758-7087.

Shakespeare's Aristotle:The Poetics in Renaissance England

Micha Lazarus, Research Fellow,Trinity College, Cambridge University

Tuesday, February 20, 20185–6 pm

Olin, Room 102Aristotle's Poetics upended literary thought in the Renaissance, mediating classical models, stimulating generic experiment, and isolating an emergent literary field. Yet it has long been considered either unavailable in England, linguistically inaccessible to the Greekless English, or hopelessly mediated for English readers by Italian criticism. Scholars have thus resisted reading the Poetics into the literary development of sixteenth-century England even where it seems most influential, and the period has been confusingly insulated from the vibrant classical and continental traditions of poetic thought from which, at times, it clearly drew.

In fact, there is plenty of hard evidence that the Poetics was, on the contrary, a real force in Renaissance England, and the untold story of its reception casts both the Poetics and the period in a new light. In this paper I will present two methodological approaches to a restored Poetics. The first traces its arrival in 1540s England through the Byzantine trivium, the Greek pronunciation controversy, scriptural tragedy, and academic readings of classical drama, locating the Poetics within a network of intellectual affiliations now mostly forgotten. Yet restoring the Poetics to critical prominence opens new paths for literary criticism as well as literary history. My second case study will suggest how we might read the Poetics into the fabric of literary composition itself, as close comparison of Hamlet and King Lear finds Shakespeare on the trail of Aristotle's elusive notion of catharsis.Sponsored by: Classical Studies Program; Literature Program; Medieval Studies Program.

Wrestling Jerusalem

Film Screening

Tuesday, February 20, 20187:30 pm

Speakers Series: Henriette Huldisch

Wednesday, February 21, 20185–7 pm

CCS Bard, Classroom 102Henriette Huldisch is director of exhibitions and curator at the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, MA, and recently organized An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy in Contemporary Art (2017), including the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jill Magid, Park McArthur, Anicka Yi, and others; Edgar Arceneaux: Written in Smoke and Fire (2016); and Tala Madani: First Light (2016). Previously, she worked at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum for Contemporary Art – Berlin, where she curated exhibitions with Harun Farocki, Anthony McCall, and others. From 2010-2014, Huldisch also served as Visiting Curator at Cornerhouse, Manchester, where she presented projects with Stanya Kahn and Rosa Barba, and from 2004-2008, she was assistant curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Among her publications are An Inventory of Shimmers (2017), Ellen Harvey: The Museum of Failure (2015), the 2008 Biennial Exhibition catalogue, and numerous contributions to exhibition catalogues and publications such as Artforum.

Speakers Series events are all free-of-charge with seating available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Sponsored by: Center for Curatorial Studies.

A Conversation with Chelsea Manning

Wednesday, February 21, 20186–7:30 pm

As an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense, Chelsea Manning disclosed classified documents to WikiLeaks that revealed human rights abuses and corruption connected to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in a military prison but released in 2017 after President Obama commuted her sentence. While in prison, Manning publicly identified as a trans woman and asserted her right to medical therapy. Now an advocate for government transparency and queer and transgender rights, Manning will speak about topics including artificial intelligence (AI) and resistance in the age of AI; activism and protest; transgender issues; and the intersection of technology and people’s lives.

This event includes an audience Q&A.Sponsored by: Hannah Arendt Center.

Timothy Snyder - On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Wednesday, February 21, 20186–7:30 pm

Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs - 170 E 64th Street, New York, NY 10065This event is part of the James Clarke Chace Memorial Speaker Series, co-sponsored by Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program, and Foreign Affairs.

The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike those faced by the Europeans of the 20th century, who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Can we learn from their experience?

Timothy Snyder is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.

This event is free and open to the public by RSVP.Sponsored by: Bard Globalization & International Affairs Program; Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

Thursday, February 22, 201812 pm

Sleeping to Remember: Uncovering Neural Mechanisms of Memory

Sara Mednick, Class of ’94University of California, Irvine

Thursday, February 22, 20184:45 pm

Preston TheaterWe all understand the general idea that sleep is important for proper functioning of the brain and body. Studies show that good sleep supports enhanced cognitive functions, including memory, creativity, attention, and mood, and promotes healthy bodily functions, including physical stamina, metabolism, and cardiac activity. Recent findings have demonstrated that sleep may be especially important for the transformation of new experiences into long-term memories, a process known as memory consolidation. The UC Irvine Sleep and Cognition (SaC) lab is interested in identifying basic neural mechanisms that are critical for memory consolidation, so that we can 1) understand the function of sleep, 2) reveal the processes of memory, and 3) determine the causal mechanisms of sleep-dependent memory by enhancing or erasing memories through experimental manipulation of brain activity during sleep. In my talk, I will introduce the building blocks of sleep and their relation to memory, as well as identify some of the specific electrophysiological events occurring in the central and autonomic nervous system that appear critical for memory consolidation. I hope to illustrate a dynamic relationship that exists during sleep between different brain areas, as well as between the heart and brain that facilitates the formation and long-term storage of memories.Sponsored by: Mind, Brain, & Behavior Program; Psychology Program.

Bad Art, Its Cause and Cure

David Bromwich, Sterling Professor of English, Yale University

Thursday, February 22, 20185 pm

RKC 103

Aesthetic judgment presumes that there is such a thing as bad art, and that it warrants careful description and analysis; with examples from 19th- and 20th-century poetry, didactic criticism and its opponents, and one or two recent Hollywood films.

Psychology of Sleep Lab Meeting and Discussion

Friday, February 23, 20189:30–11 am

Reem-Kayden Center Booth Ferris Foundation Terrace Pod 222We are hoping to reserve the conference room on the second floor of the RKC for a psychology lab meeting with a visiting colloquium professor. Other psychology students and professors outside of the lab may join as we discuss sleep and memory research. For more information, call 207-671-0971, or e-mail nl8800@bard.edu.

The Discovery of Global Warming

Spencer Weart, former director of the American Institute of Physics Center for History of Physics

Friday, February 23, 201812 pm

Hegeman 107

The history of how we learned about climate change offers a deep look into the way scientists work and how that has changed. When 19th-century scientists discovered the Ice Ages they came up with various explanations, including a decrease of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Could humanity’s fossil fuel emissions bring a reverse effect, global warming? The idea found only a few supporters, curious scientists who stepped aside from their usual research to develop “greenhouse gas” calculations and measurements. By 1960 they proved that the idea merited serious research. An onslaught of droughts in the early 1970s brought public attention to climate and intensified research, typically by small teams, but scientists admitted they could not even predict whether the world would get warmer or colder. This was resolved at the end of the 1970s by computer models that found global warming would become obvious around 2000. The implication that the fossil fuel industries must be radically reduced brought political pushback and scientific controversy. Crucial confirmation of the models came from a totally independent direction: research on climates of the distant past (studies that were themselves confirmed through independent lines of attack). Large-scale teamwork was now necessary to advance, and almost no climate scientist worked alone. When the world’s governments devised a novel mechanism to get scientific advice, hundreds and then thousands of experts in diverse fields managed to cooperate. By 2001 they reached a nearly unanimous consensus: dangerous climate change is all but certain within our lifetime. The focus of research turned to the impacts.Sponsored by: Physics Program.

How to Hire a Professor

Jeff Suzuki, Brooklyn College

Friday, February 23, 20181:30 pm

Hegeman 204Suppose you're one of a group of people responsible for a decision: choosing which applicant to hire into a job; deciding what food to have available at a banquet; or choosing who's going to represent you in Washington, D.C. How can you do it? Social choice theory is the branch of mathematics that studies how groups can make decisions. We'll take a look at some problems, some solutions, and some paradoxes that result when groups try to make decisions.Sponsored by: Mathematics Program.

Christian Services

Sunday, February 25, 20183–5 pm

Chapel of the Holy InnocentsYou are invited to be part of our service of prayer and Holy Communion as we gather for intellectual discussions about theology, the Bible, and current events. Snacks and fellowship occur after the service. We welcome all—Christians, non-Christians, spiritual but not religious, agnostics, believers, doubters, seekers, those who have questions about faith and religion, those struggling to understand where God is in our challenging world, and anyone wanting to use their faith to change and act in the world!Sponsored by: Chaplaincy.

Trumpet Masterclass with David Bilger, the principal trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra

Musicians from the Conservatory Orchestra and TON will take part in a public masterclass.

Sunday, February 25, 20181–3:30 pm

László Z. Bitó '60 Conservatory BuildingDavid Bilger holds a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois. Hailed by the New York Times for his playing of “easy brilliance” and by the Washington Post for his “engaging legato touch,” he has held the position of principal trumpet of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1995. Prior to joining the Orchestra, he held the same position with the Dallas Symphony.

As a soloist Mr. Bilger has appeared with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Oakland Symphony, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, and others.

¡Viva Puerto Rico!

Benefit Concert for Hurricane Maria Victims

Sunday, February 25, 20184 pm

Olin HallThe plena group Bomplé and an orchestra of Bard student musicians conducted by Andres Rivas '16 will perform traditional Puerto Rican songs and other Caribbean favorites to raise funds for the hurricane relief organizations United for Puerto Rico and the Ricky Martin Foundation for Puerto Rico.

Suggested donation $10 at the door.Sponsored by: Bard College Conservatory of Music; Music Program.

New pieces for instruments and electronics by Bard students/alums Clara Allison, Henry Birdsey, and Telo Hoy, along with two works by Bard professor Matt Sargent. 7 PM, $12 public / $8 students. WAAM is located at 28 Tinker Street on the green in Woodstock.

Concert #2: Sun. February 25 | Switch~ Ensemble in Blum Hall

Switch~ Ensemble performs a selection of their newly commissioned works for chamber ensemble and electronics, including the premiere of Matt Sargent's "Unwound Path" for chamber ensemble. The concert includes music by Tonia Ko, D. Edward Davis, and Alican Çamcı, and Morton Feldman. 7:30 PM in Blum Hall, free and open to the public.

These concerts are funded in part by a project grant from NewMusicUSA.

A Reading by Karan Mahajan

The Bard Fiction Prize winner and National Book Award finalist Karan Mahajan reads from his work.

Monday, February 26, 20182:30 pm

Campus Center, Weis Cinema

On Monday, February 26, at 2:30 p.m. in Weis Cinema, Bertelsmann Campus Center, novelist Karan Mahajan reads from his work. Presented by the Innovative Contemporary Fiction Reading Series, introduced by novelist and Bard literature professor Bradford Morrow, and followed by a Q&A, the reading is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required.

Karan Mahajan studied English and economics at Stanford University before earning an M.F.A. in fiction from the Michener Center for Writers. His first novel, Family Planning (2012), was a finalist for the International Dylan Thomas Prize. His second novel, The Association of Small Bombs (2016), won the Bard Fiction Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction, and the NYPL Young Lions Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award, in addition to being named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review, New York Magazine, Esquire, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and others. In 2017, Mahajan was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists.

PRAISE FOR KARAN MAHAJAN

“The Association of Small Bombs is wonderful. It is smart, devastating, unpredictable, and enviably adept in its handling of tragedy and its fallout. . . . Mahajan is the real deal.” —Fiona Maazel, New York Times Book Review

“A voracious approach to fiction-making . . . Mahajan has a cinematic attunement to the spectacle of disaster.” —New Yorker

Land Remarks: Real Nature Talk with Rebecca Bray and Kati London

Monday, February 26, 20187–8 pm

New Annandale House (Container Lab)Rebecca Bray and Kati London will talk about their collaborative and separate work as artists and technologists who have been working on interfaces between the human and non-human social worlds for the past decade, using data, humor and strangeness to create surprising and revelatory interactions. In 2006, they, along with two other collaborators created Botanicalls, a system that allows plants and humans to communicate through sensor data and phones, now in the permanent collection at MoMA. Since then, their separate projects include a social game that uses real world shark migration data (Sharkrunners) and a social network around urban agriculture (WindowFarms) among many others.

Kati London is currently a Director of Product in Artificial Intelligence & Research at Microsoft where she focuses on humanizing technology and social interaction, previously she led game studios Area/Code and Zynga New York. She has been an Innovator-in-Residence at the Annenburg School at USC and was named one of the "Most Creative People in Business" by Fast Company.

Rebecca Bray is an artist whose multimedia installations have been seen at the Hirshhorn Museum and the Whitney. She was the Chief of Experience Design at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History where she made crazy projects with some of the millions of weird collections from the vaults of the museum, and is now the Managing Director at the Center for Artistic Activism, where she makes crazy projects with artists and activists around the world.Sponsored by: Experimental Humanities Program.

Complicit Responsibility for White Ignorance

Eva BoodmanVisiting Assistant Professor of Philosophyat William Paterson University

Tuesday, February 27, 20184:45 pm

Olin, Room 102

White ignorance is a pervasive, insidious form of structural racism linked to knowledge-production that operates in habits, norms, laws and institutional practices. Some attempts to address it, however, reproduce it. This is because an inappropriate framework of responsibility tends to be used: a "liability" framework that emphasizes the preservation of innocence through disavowal, with the effect of essentializing racial identity. In this talk I’ll offer an alternative model of responsibility inspired by Iris Young’s social connection model by which dominant identities can be deflated and de-supremicized without disavowal: a model of complicit responsibility.

Eva Boodman is a One-Year Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. Her work focuses on questions of political responsibility, complicity, and the institutional reproduction of structural racism through prisons, schools, nursing homes, and the non-profit sector. Her most recent publications are on the impact of mass incarceration on women, and for the last 5 years she has taught political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and the philosophy of race in universities and jails.

Webinar: How to Get a Job in Sustainability

Purpose-Driven Careers in Business, NGOs, and Government

Tuesday, February 27, 20187–8 pm

Dr. Eban Goodstein, Director of Graduate Programs in Sustainability at Bard College, will outline career strategies for both soon-to-be and recent college graduates, and for professionals looking to make a move. Goodstein will provide participants with a concrete job-search strategy, discuss what the current political climate means for careers in social and environmental sustainability, and also field questions in a live, interactive webinar.

Levy Graduate Programs Information Session

Wednesday, February 28, 20186–7 pm

WebinarDuring this information session we will answer questions about admission to the M.A. and M.S. in Economic Theory and Policy, financial aid, as well as requirements for 3+2 and 4+1 applicants and international students. We will also talk about life in upstate New York, the Bard Annandale-on-Hudson campus, and more.Sponsored by: Levy Economics Institute; Levy Graduate Programs.